Stringed musical instrument



ay 21, was W. L. HOY-r 3,383,971

STRINGED MUSI CAL INSTRUMENT Filed Aug. 9, 1965 INVENTOR.

wlLLlAM L. HoYT BY @wm ATTORNEY 3,383,971 STRINGED MUSICAL INSTRUMENT William L. Hoyt, 9729 Chapelcroit Si., Philadelphia, Pa. 191115 Filed Aug. 9, 1965, Ser. No. 473,245 9 Claims. (Cl. 34-Z87) ABSTRACT GF THE DSCLGSURE A stringed musical instrument of the cithern type having a plurality of damper bars extending across the strings, each damper bar stopping certain strings when it is depressed, to form chords. The stops to form a given chord are distributed between two damper bars, and two bars are depressed to produce a standard chord. In one form of the instrument each damper bar has a iirm and a gentle depressed position, to provide more possible chords.

This invention relates to a stringed musical instrument of the cithern type, It particularly 4relates to the type of hand or lap held instrument known as an autoharp. A common characteristic of such instruments is that they include a plurality of strings having different pitches and are intended to be plucked or strummed. They differ from instruments such as the guitar for example in that a mechanism is provided whereby all those strings except those belonging to a particular desired chord are damped at once so that all active or undamped strings belong only n to the desired chord.

This invention relates to a means and method to increase the flexibility of the autoharp by providing mechanism so that a greater selection of chords is made available than is known on conventional instruments. A conventional instrument may typically provide twelve different available chords. In the chromatic scale in the equal temperament system, there are twelve dierent tones, notes, or pitches in an octave. There are thus twelve possible major chords, each chord starting or being built on one of the notes in the chromatic scale. There are also twelve possible minor chords, each being built on one of the notes in the scale. There are of course other conventionally accepted chords which are not as widely used as the major and minor chords. The best known of these other chords is the dominant seventh chord.

It is highly desirable to have a free selection of all the major and minor chords available in the equal tempered chromatic scale, that is, a total of twenty-four chords. It

is also desirable, although less important, to also have y, available the additional twelve dominant seventh chords.

It `will be appreciated that the conventional instrument having, for example, typically twelve bars, merely provides a selection of the available chords. Usually, there are an equal number of maior and minor chords selected. There have been known expediente to increase the number of chords available on the autoharp. The simple multiplying of the number of damper bars is impractical because of the space limitations. Known means have included devices for shifting the bars and have included auxiliary controls. One disadvantage of these known expedients has been that they require motions by the player other than those of the simple downward iinger pressure which the player normally uses in Setting up the chords. From the point of view of musicianship, the introduction of such non-uniform motions is a drawback.

It is an object of this invention to provide a stringed musical instrument.

It is an object of this invention to provide an autoharp with a plurality of damper bars, said autoharp being capable of producing more dilierent chords than it has damper bars.

Fatentecl May 2l, 1968 It is another object of this invention to provide an autoharp with a plurality of damper bars, each damper bar containing a plurality of stops, the required number of stops to set up the autoharp to produce a given chord being distributed among a plurality of said stops.

It is another object of this invention to provide an autoharp having a plurality of damper bars, each damper bar being provided with a plurality of stops, the stops required to produce a given chord being distributed between a rst damper bar and a second damper bar, and the stops required to produce a different chord being distributed between said first damper bar and another damper bar other than said second damper bar.

A still further object of this invention is to provide an autoharp having a plurality of damper bars, each damper bar having a plurality of stops, some of said stops being full stops and others being shallow stops.

Other aims and objects of this invention are made apparent in the following specification and claims.

The invention is best understood in connection with the accompanying drawing in which like reference numerals refer to like parts and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of an autoharp showing the damper bars and the stops schematically;

FIGURE 2 is an elevation view taken from the front of one of the damper bars of FIGURE 1, showing the structure of said damper bar.

The autoharp is generally designated 260. It includes a body 1t) which is of conventional construction. The conventional structure of an autoharp is well known and many details ot such structure are omitted from the showing in FIGURE 1 as being unnecessary to the present invention. For example, the autoharp generally includes an outer frame, a sounding board, and individual pegs or other tension adjusting means for each string.

In FIGURE 1, the strings 12 are shown without any tension adjusting means. As shown in FIGURE 1, there are a plurality of strings 12, arranged in substantially parallel relationship. In accord with well-known conventional practice, these strings diter from each other in length and sometimes in weight per unit length.

In FIGURE 1, there are shown forty-six strings representing forty-six consecutive notes in the chromatic equal tempered scale. Thus, several octaves are spanned, and a formed chord is repeated throughout the octaves. It is often a practice to omit certain of the notes in the chromatic scale near one or both ends of the extreme range of the instrument. This is not done in the present drawing however, both to facilitate ease in showing the over-all organization, and also because the flexibility of key resulting from this invention makes it desirable that all notes in the chromatic scale between the extremes be included. Thus, while an autoharp constmcted according to these principles may have more or less than the forty-six strings shown, it is nevertheless preferable that all those strings which are included be successive chromatic notes.

The keyboard, generally designated 16, comprises a set of twelve substantially parallel damper bars, identified as follows: Ztl. Sti, 4t), 5t), 60, 70, St), 90, wth, 110, 120, 130. In FIGURE 1, each damper bar is schematically shown as a simple line extending across all the strings at 12, approximating the conventional orientation with regard to these strings.

The structure of each damper bar is best understood by reference to FIGURE 2, in which a more detailed showing ot representative damper bar 26 is made. Damper bar 2d comprises a bridge 2t extending across the array of strings 12. The array of strings 12 is shown in crosssection, below bridge 21. At each end thereof, bridge 21 is supported on the autoharp body 10 by means of a spring 23. These springs Z3 are biased to hold bridge 21 up away from the strings 12. A manual or key 22 is provided on top of the bridge 21 so that finger pressure may depress the bridge. A plurality of stops are affixed to the underside of bridge 21. Each stop is vertically aligned with and corresponds to one of the strings 12. These stops may also be called dampers. They are conventionally and conveniently made of some yieldable material. Felt or felt-like materials are commonly used and are satisfactory.

Conventionally, any given damper bar, such as damper bar 20, is provid-ed with enough stops or dampers to damp out all those strings in the array of strings except those forming part of the chord represented by that particular damper bar. So far, the structure as described is conventional.

In the present invention, the stops provided on the damper bar such as damper bar 20 are not sufficient to damp all unwanted strings for any given conventional chord. Thus, if only damper bar 20 were depressed, there would be spurious notes included in any conventional chord that might be considered to be formed by the undamped strings. To produce such a conventional chord, damper bar 20 must be depressed in conjunction with another damper bar.

Bridge 21 is provided with a plurality of stops, comprising shallow stops 24 and full stops 25. As shown, it will be noted that the full stops 25 depend a greater vertical distance from the bottom of bridge 21 than do the shallow stops 24. For ease of understanding and correlation between the figures, it is noted that shallow stops 24 are marked with an open cir-cle and full stops 25 are marked with a closed circle. This coding is used to identify each stop on each of the damper bars shown in FIGURE 1. It has been found that if the manual or key 22 is depressed firmly, all the stops, both the shallow stops 24 and the full stops 25, make contact with and damp out the string with which they correspond. This is due to the deformation of the yieldable material of which the full stop is made as well as to the vertically downward deformation ofthe strings when pressed by the stops. When firm pressure is applied, this combined deforma tion and displacement permits the shallow stops also to come in -contact with the strings to which they correspond, and the effect is as if all the stops were of the same depth or length of dependency from bridge Z1.

Considering the application of firm pressure to each key depressed, it follows that each marked stop on any of the damper bars shown in FIGURE l, whether a filled circle or an open circle, may be considered to damp out the string with which it is aligned, as if all the stops were of the same depth.`

If the operator presses the keys firmly so that both shallow stops 24 and full stops 25 contact their respective strings, it will be seen from an examination of the arrangement shown in FIGURE l that depressing any two adjacent damper bars together will produce a major chord. Thus, the pressing down rmly of damper bars 2t) and 30 will leave undamped only strings A flat, C, and E flat throughout the compass of the instrument. This is the A fiat major chord. The string legend shown on FIGURE 1 is illustrative of the type of legend that customarily is provided on the frame of autoharps to identify the strings. As a matter of convenience and somewhat of convention, all altered notes are shown as sharps rather than flats. Thus, the A fiat referred to above is identified in FIGURE 1 as G sharp, which is of course the same note in equal temperment.

The firm depression of the next different pair, that is damper bars 30 and liti, produces the undamped strings E flat, G, and B flat, that is, the chord identified as E flat major. In the same manner each succeeding different pair of adjacent damper bars, that is, for example, bars 40 and 50, and bars 5t) and 60, produces a different major chord. Finally, the outer-most damper bars, that is bars 20 and 3i), are considered as adjacent to each other. There are thus twelve of these adjacent pairs, and each one of them builds a major chord on a different note of the chromatic scale.

The minor chords are formed by firmly depressing two bars, but to produce a minor chord, two unpressed damper bars are left between those which are pressed. Thus, pressing damper bar 20 and damper bar 50 leaves undamped the strings F,-A flat, and C. This is the chord of F minor. For convenience, this is considered the depressing of a damper and the fourth damper bar from it. The counting is continued past the outer-most bar in the arrangement and back to the other outer-most bar. Thus, a minor chord is produced by pressing bar and bar 2f). In this way, each of the twelve minor chords in the octave may be produced.

Note that in all the above mentioned cases, the bars are pressed down firmly so that the effect of the shallow and full stops is as if they were all stops of the same depth. It therefor follows that if it is desired only to produce the twelve major and the twelve minor chords using twelve different damper bars, all the stops may be made of the same depth and the distinction between shallow and full stops may be eliminated. In such a construction, the stops represented by the open circles and the filled circles would all be the same.

Considering the arrangement of shallow stops and full stops as shown in the figures, the use of these differences to produce twelve dominant seventh chords will now be described. Any pair of adjacent bars may be pressed, with the lower of such bars pressed until initial contact is made between the stops and the strings. For example, bars 2t) and 30 may be depressed. Bar 30, the upper bar (as it appears in the layout of FIGURE 1) is pressed firmly as it has been described before. Bar 20, the lower bar, is pressed gently. That is, it is pressed so that the full stops 25 contact their strings. The shallow stops 24 thus do not descend far enough to contact the strings and therefor the strings corresponding to shallow stops 24 are left undamped. In the case of bars 20` and 30 being thus depressed, the strings A flat, C, E flat, and G flat are left undamped, thus producing the chord A fiat dominant seventh. In like manner, pressing of any adjacent pair, but with the lower of the pair pressed gently as described, produces the dominant seventh chord corresponding to the major chord produced when both bars are pressed firmly. It is therefor apparent that with the provision of shallow and full stops as illustrated, the autoharp can produce thirty-six different chords, although only twelve damper bars are used and only two of the damper bars are pressed at any time. Furthermore, no additional switch, setting or other adjustment is necessary.

The over-all arrangement may be verbally described. The following description is for one octave having each member of the chromatic scale in equal temperment. It contemplates the use of twelve damper bars and the possibility of producing thereby twelve different major chords, twelve different minor chords, and twelve different dominant seventh chords. It is understood that the series may be continued for as many octaves as it is desired. The first or lowest bar has its twelve positions corresponding to the twelve strings in the octave equipped as follows, with the word stop understood to follow each adjective in this series: no, shallow, full, no, full, full, no, no, no, full, no, full. The series can begin with any member thereof as long as it is continued in the same order as set forth for the twelve members of the series. The next adjacent bar is provided with full stops and shallow stops in the same order as described for the first bar except that its series starts with the sixth member of the series on the first bar. That is, the series of stops on the second bar is as follows: full, no, no, no, no, full, no, full, no, shallow, full, no, full. Each succeeding bar is related to its preceding bar in the same way as the second bar described above is related to the first bar described above. It is understood that if the series on the first bar starts at some member other than that given in the list, then the succeeding bars must have their series displaced by the same number of places. Thus, an arrangement as described above will produce an octave starting with F. If the series of the rst bar starts with the shallow stop and continues in the same order as set forth, with the final member of the series being what was formerly the first member of the series, then the octave will start with F sharp.

If it is desired to eliminate the provision of the dominant sevenths, so that all the stops are of the same depth, as has been described, the series and the relationship of the series on the different bars is as described above except that the member in the series described above as a shallow stops is then simply a stop like the other stops. Thus, the first bar in an arrangement where only one type of stop is used, is as follows, the presence of a stop being described by the word dampen and the absence of a stop being described by the word no: no, damper, damper, no, damper, damper, no, no, no, damper, no, damper. All the comments made above apply here also, as to the place at which this series on succeeding bars start, andthe fact that any displacement of the initial member of the series in one bar must be met with a corresponding displacement in all the other bars.

It is conventional practice to label each bar on an autoharp with the name of the chord it produces. The exact nature of the labeling is a matter of choice. For example, bar 2t) can be labeled A hat major and also labeled F minor in some distinctive position or appearance. The player or operator must be taught that to produce A at major, bar 2t) and its adjacent bar (bar 30) are pressed, and that to produce F minor, bar 2u and the fourth bar (bar 50) are pressed. The operator must know that by pressing the first bar (bar gently, the dominant seventh of the first labeled chord (A fiat major) is produced. Fortunately, since the dominant seventh thus produced always corresponds to the labeled major chord, the labeling is simplified. It is understood, however, that the scope of this invention is not limited to any particular labeling system.

Broadly, this invention contemplates expanding the number of chords produced in a multiple simultaneous damping instrument by distributing among a plurality of damper bars, the dampers that would conventionally be on a single damper bar to produce a given chord. Theoretically, it is therefor possible to combine any given bar with any other bar, or with any number of other bars to produce different combinations of notes. In fact, the structure shown in FIGURE 1 can be used in this way. It is apparent that many more possible note combinations can be obtained. However, considering together the complexities of attempting to play such a device as a musical instrument and the relatively less or even non-existent musical value of note combinations thus produced, it is apparent that as a practical matter such simple and orderly combinations as have been described above are more suitable.

Considering the use of pairs of depressed bars, where the relationship of the pairs is iixed, as has been described, it will be appreciated that the provision of different arrangements of the pairs is within the scope of the invention. Of course, if some notes of the chromatic scale are omitted in the array of strings, as is sometimes done at the ends of the instruments compass, the abovedescribed series of stops is interrupted to skip the omitted notes.

The scope of this invention is to be determined by the appended claims and is not to be limited by the aforegoing description and drawings which are illustrative.

I claim:

1. A stringed musical instrument comprising a plurality of strings of different pitches, a plurality of depressable damper bars extending across said strings, each said damper bar having at least one stop, each said stop aligned with a different one of said strings to damp said 6 strings when said damper bar is depressed toward said string, the total stops necessary to damp out all strings except those belonging to a desired chord being distributed between at least two of said damper bars.

2. A stringed musical instrument comprising a plurality of strings of different pitches, said strings including at least one octave of the equal temperment chromatic scale, a plurality of depressable damper bars extending across at least said octave of strings, each said damper lbar having a plurality of stops, each said stop aligned with a different one of said strings to damp said string when said damper bar is depressed toward said string, the total stops necessary to damp out all strings except those belonging to a desired chord being distributed between only two of said damper bars.

3. A stringed musical instrument as set forth in claim 2 wherein the stops necessary to damp all strings except those belonging to a certain major chord are distributed between a certain pair of damper bars and the stops necessary to damp all strings except those belonging to a certain minor chord are distributed between only one damper bar of said pair and another damper bar.

4. A stringed musical instrument as set forth in claim 3 wherein there are at least twelve said damper bars, and the stops necessary to damp all strings except those belonging to a certain major chord are distributed between a pair of adjacent damper bars, each succeeding different pair of damper bars having stops distributed between them to damp all strings except those belonging to different major chords.

5. A stringed musical instrument as set forth in claim 4l. wherein each pair of a damper bar and the fourth succeeding damper bar have distributed between them all stops necessary to damp all strings except those belonging to a certain minor chord, and each succeeding said pair of a damper bar and the fourth successive damper bar having distributed between them all stops necessary to damp all strings except those belonging to a different minor chord.

6. A stringed musical instrument comprising a plurality of strings of dilferent pitches, a plurality of depressable damper bars extending across said strings, each said damper bar having a plurality of stops, each said stop aligned with a different one of said strings, at least one of said stops on each of said damper bars being a shallow stop, and at least one of said stops on each of said damper bars being a full stop, each of said full stops being deformable, so that when a damper bar is depressed toward said strings, said full stop damps its aligned string before said shallow stop damps its aligned string.

'7. A stringed musical instrument as set forth in claim `6 whereinthere are strings corresponding to at least one octave of the equal temperment chromatic scale, and there are at least twelve of said damper bars, said full stops and said shallow stops being distributed among said damper bars so that when a pair of adjacent damper bars are depressed firmly so that all stops damp their aligned strings, all strings except those of a certain major chord are damped, and when a damper and the fourth succeeding damper bar are firmly depressed so all stops damp their aligned strings, all strings except those of a certain minor are damped, and when a damper bar is pressed gently so that only the said full stops on said damper bar damp their aligned strings, and the fourth succeeding damper bar is pressed rmly so that all stops on said damper bar damp their aligned strings, all strings are damped except those belonging to a certain dominant seventh chord.

8. A stringed musical instrument comprising a plurality of strings, said strings having different pitches including each note of the chromatic equal temperment scale of at least one octave, twelve damper bars, each of said damper bars extending across all of said strings, each of said damper bars having thereon a plurality of deformable stops, each stop being aligned with a different string, the succession of stops on one of said damper bars through the compass of one octave being as follows: no stop, Stop, stop, no stop, stop, stop, no stop, no stop, no stop, stop, no stop, stop, and the next succeeding adjacent damper bar having the same series, said series starting 6 places from the beginning of the series on said first named damper bar, said series and said displacement being continued through all twelve successive said damper bars.

9. A stringed musical instrument comprising a plurality of strings, said strings having different pitches including each note of the chromatic equal temperment scale of at least one octave, twelve damper bars, each of said damper bars extending across all of said strings, each of said damper 'bars having thereon a plurality of deformable stops, each stop being aligned with a different string, the succession of stops on one of said damper bars through the compass of one octave being as follows: no stop, shallow stop, full stop, no stop, full stop, full stop, no stop, no stop, no stop, full stop, no stop, full stop, and the next succeeding adjacent damper bar having the same series, said series starting six places from the beginning of the series on said first named damper bar, said series and said displacement being continued through all twelve successive said damper bars.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 11/1910 Holloway 84-287 1/1897 Dolge 84--2-88 

